Demand for whale meat decreases in Japan

As Japan has increased its annual catch, supply of whale meat has exceeded demand, causing its price to drop so low that it now appears on the menu in school canteens.

Cheap drinking establishments in Tokyo serve whale "bacon" for as little as £3 a plate while one fast food chain serves whale burgers for £1.60.

A small number of restaurants specialize in whale meat, serving it raw as sashimi, as steaks or deep fried. But even among people who do not object to eating whales, most say that the taste is unspectacular.

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Though Japan boasts over 1,000 years of whaling history, whale meat was eaten almost exclusively in a few coastal communities until the end of the Second World War. Only with the desperate post-war shortage of food was whale distributed nationwide, with the approval of the American occupation which saw it as a cheap and plentiful form of protein.

That has all changed. Nevertheless, Tokyo expends considerable diplomatic energy in wooing small nations to its cause and encouraging them to join the International Whaling Commission to give them an extra vote among its members. Critics note that many of Japan's supporters in the IWC are also the recipients of generous Japanese aid.

Japanese argue that the whaling commission is not intended to be an anti-whaling forum and sees attempts to halt whaling as a form of cultural imperialism.

"Asking Japan to abandon its whaling culture would compare to Australians being asked to stop eating meat pies, Americans being asked to stop eating hamburgers and the English being asked to go without fish and chips," says the Japan Whaling Association website.

Government scientists in Tokyo argue that minke whales exist in such large numbers that controlled hunting is sustainable and may even help the recovery of depleted fish stocks and other endangered species, such as the Blue Whale, which rely on the same food.

Japan, a heavily populated country with limited arable land, is unable to produce enough food to feed its population and requires unusually high level of food imports. This precarious food security situation has meant Tokyo is loath to entirely abandon whaling.